Page:The Mothers of England.djvu/68

Rh In the same way we often see children tormenting animals, even the very pets they consider as their own, and appear at other times to love; not certainly in ignorance that there is torment in what they are doing, but purely, as it would seem, from an inclination to give pain. I am the more disposed to think there is this element in the human character, because I know individuals, kind and benevolent in the general tone of their feelings, who, from never having been taught to pity the sufferings of the animal creation, inflict the most wanton cruelty simply as an amusement.

It becomes, then, an important part of a mother's duty, to teach her children the loveliness, as well as the utility of pity; for without pity, there would be little done in the world toward relieving individual distress. Pity is the forerunner of help; and whoever can not pity, is without the mainspring of all human kindness.

I have sometimes thought that by being allowed the care of tame animals, children might be taught to feel both pity and sympathy for this portion of the creation. But then there are so very few animals capable of being made so happy in confinement, as they would be in their natural state, that there appears considerable danger, lest we should by this means be guilty of inflicting misery for the sake of seeing it pitied. There are some, however, such as dogs, rabbits, Guinea-pigs, and some kinds of birds, which, if not confined too closely, and carefully supplied with their favorite food, exhibit every symptom of cheerfulness, and even satisfaction in their lot. Among these, there will unavoidably be deaths and disasters of various kinds, calculated to call forth feelings of pity; and the boy, who in early childhood has really loved his own dog, will be likely to show kindness to all others, for the sake of that long-remembered favorite.

Many important facts in natural history may also, by the same means, be impressed upon the minds of children, so as never to be forgotten in afterlife; especially that important fact, that in connexion with animal life in a healthy state, there is always, to a certain extent, a capability both of enjoyment and suffering. The child learns, too, in the same way, its first moral lesson—that, by the exercise of kindness, the creatures dependant upon its care are made